Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had a ball python for 3-months and she has put on over 100 grams in those 3 months. She attempted to shed for the first time this week and became confined in her tight skin. I soaked her in warm water and most of it came off. I think my problem is the humidity or lack of humidity in her sweater box. What is the best method for adding and maintaining humidity in her sweater box. I use large pine shavings, she has a log to hide under and a water dish large enough for her to get in should she choose to. The sweater box is in a boaphile rack with belly heat in the back which is kept at 88-90 degrees on that side.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Try switching your bedding to cypress mulch instead. You can also try ecoearth, which is compressed coconut that turns into a soft soil-like substrate.

Another tactic might be to just mist your bedding once or twice a day.

Good luck!

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Lizard
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 mice (Cute Girl Mousy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

jenny.thegreenes.org

Pine is generally not too good for reptiles.
Adding live plants can help raise your humidity.

I avoid misting substrate due to mold issues but I try to keep a hide box in the enclosure with moist (not wet) sphagnum moss.

Kangas, It is not widley recomended that you use pine as a bedding for reptiles. Not as dangerous as cedar but it does contain chemicals that can cause irratation to the skin. I would switch to either aspen, cypress or newspaper. As far as humidity I will describe what I am doing and you can decide if it works for you. I do not have a boaphile rack, but I looked it up and it looks pretty much like the RBI Plastics racks that I am using. I use aspen as bedding and keep it as dry as possible for the majority of the time. The humidity stays about 55-60 percent with nothing more then the water bowl which works for me. When ever one of my snakes goes blue; just when they start to clear up I mist the heck out of the aspen, and I mean really wet just no standing water. The heat at the back of the box causes it to dry up pretty quick along the back, but thats OK you don't necessarily want them laying on the wet. The front of the box stays wet for 4 to 5 days. most of the time they have shed by then, if not I remist the substrate. The first thing I do after they shed is pick out the fresh shed, unroll it to look for the eye caps. If they are on the shed then they are not on the snake. The second thing I do is remove the snake, grab a quick weight and then place them in a holding container. At this point I empty out all the old wet bedding, wash the tube with soap and water, dry it completely and then refill it with fresh bedding. Thats it; simple and I can tell you that I have no problem with poor sheds, retained eye caps or with any kind of belly rot, skin fungus or mold. So you be the judge.

Jeff

Thank you all for your suggestions and help thus far. Since she still had remaining shed on her today (around the neck and on to her head) I soaked her one more time and then worked with her with my wet fingers. It took 15 minutes or so but I got it all off. She didn't like me restraining her or rubbing her with my wet finger, but as soon as I finished I gave her a mouse and POW it was back to feeding as usual. (She did have a retained ey cap too which I got off). I will switch to aspen as I have used it before and have no problem with it. I do mist her entire box, but it evaporates quickly. I use wet hide boxes for my leopard geckos so I can certainly give the python one too. This is my only python right now, but I like her a lot and want to take good care of her and get more when I can.